


Semperfortis

by Saraku



Series: Sharp Knife of a Short Life [8]
Category: One Piece
Genre: ASL BrosWeek 2016, Alternate Universe - Canon, Angst, Five Stages of Grief, Gen, Hurt No Comfort, Not A Fix-It, multiple character deaths
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-09-26
Updated: 2016-09-26
Packaged: 2018-08-17 02:41:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,272
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8127250
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Saraku/pseuds/Saraku
Summary: Courage is fearing the monster but deciding to keep charging through.Courage is embodied in three children, and a monster where the world wants them dead.  For courage is the tool of the strong.





	

**Author's Note:**

> Remember when I said Day 7/ASLuffy was going to be fluffy and cute? With that said, have Day 8 - How do you AU?
> 
> Also, to anyone who's commented on any of the ASLBrosWeek works, thank you so much! I'll get around to responding them soon.

_Death doesn’t discriminate between the sinners and the saints;_

 

~~*~~*~~

 

It was a terrible idea and they knew it.

“Who’s idea was this, again?” Sabo mutters, ducking beside a large barrel and hiding his shadow.

“Come on, Bo,” Ace whispers softly from the corner, “as stupid as this is, we need to do it. _Luffy_ needs it.”

Sabo sighs wearily, and they waited in silence for the marine to leave the stand before the mismatched duo detaches themselves from the safety of shadows and continue their trek; their hands wander wherever there was a large crowd and stole whatever it was they could use – food, water, essentials. Jewelry to sell, cloth for bandages and the occasional clothing. This time, jewelry was their main goal as it got them good money – money needed for Luffy.

Both hear the soft murmurs and distinctive footsteps of hurried marines, and they decided to split up, Sabo taking the eastern side and Ace the west, using the latter’s flames as their multi-purposed signal. The blond’s hand twitches, wishing for his hat but Sabo knew that was a clear giveaway to who he was and no one with tattered clothing would have a well-kept hat like his. His eyes twinkle as he saw money stuffed into a pocket, uncaring if it was about to fall; he took the opportunity and swiped it, running into an alley an doing a quick count before hiding them in his _much_ more secure pockets. Passing through another section of the marketplace, he picked up on a conversation.

“You hear about that Devil Fruit they found?”

“Yeah – Yami Yami, or something?”

“Can’t recall the name. I did hear them say that it’s really powerful. Said they were sending it to G-5.”

“Aren’t all those Devil things dangerous?”

“Mm, but apparently this one’s really bad.”

Sabo’s mind decides that information would be really useful and stores it, but the talk about Devil Fruits brings up a fresh, painful memory. He remembers clearly the day Ace ate his Devil Fruit; Luffy was weak, much too weak and sick and Ace had shoved the food up the boy’s mouth before Sabo could even properly comprehend the words. Ace had stumbled upon the Devil Fruit earlier – both had decided it was both in their best interests not to eat it – and it was either eat it or faint from starvation and Sabo hated – _hated –_ Ace’s explanation for it.

 _“What use am I dead?_ ”

Sabo had no idea how to react to the lacking addition of how he didn’t deserve to live in the first place, because while it meant progress with life, it also meant Ace was more than serious and _that_ , that was never a good sign. That, while it meant Ace realized he was useful for something in life, it was for being a _monster_.

Sabo hates it. Not more than the Celestial Dragons or the Marines or the Gorosei, but he hates it nonetheless.

A shot of fire reaching the skies grasps his attention, and while others are consumed by the sudden appearance of flames, Sabo nabs the items they are holding, items displayed at booths and stalls, and slips away unnoticed. The blond struggles with the heavy items, the big items. His pockets aren’t large enough to hold them, and whatever he can store is much too heavy and will _slow him down_.

And speed – speed was an essential piece required to keep surviving. Especially with the Marines – Sabo knows they recognize the fire, and the particular signal Ace sends is the one of haste.

They’ve been found, and they’d be damned if they were caught now. The brothers made a promise a long time ago; a time so long that it seemed like a distant imagination.

(It was a memory – or dream? – that hurt, hurt _so_ much that every time they thought about it, they were reminded of what they had.)

 

~~*~~*~~

 

When Luffy himself stated that he had a very, _very_ bad feeling, the other two knew that they needed to exercise more caution than ever. Sabo had decided he himself was to go, for he was better at subtlety and hiding, as Ace was the one being actively searched.

The former noble wasn’t expecting another band of pirates; pirates that stole and killed for fun and fame and glory, pirates that didn’t care about people. Sabo grips his pipe and makes quick precise hits, making sure that the head or face was hit because if he was recognized, then all hell would break lose, and they’d lose another two weeks of sailing for nothing, another two weeks only to be hated and feared and _unloved_.

(Sabo wonders what it feels like – the feeling of being wanted. The void he once had is filled by his brothers, but he’s not sure how long it’s going to last.

And his brothers; his brothers wonder as well.)

Sabo sees things he’s seen so often before. Chocolates, sweets, candies, pancakes, flavored water, _luxuries_ of a noble.

He hates it with a burning passion.

The blond wanders and wonders – what word would be used to describe them? If those were the luxuries of a noble to a commoner, then what were they to people being hunted down for merely existing and affiliating with another child? He nabs and snatches (but recoils when he grabs sweets – water was scarce and sweets would only make it worse – and turns the other way) and is about to call it a day and get back to their ship before fire torches the town.

Long ago, so long ago, Sabo would have frozen and feared the fire and let memories of being burned take him; but Ace had tried to mend that, tried to fix the fears that had been instilled and it _worked_. The fire doesn’t bother Sabo – instead, he narrows his eyes, mind thinking quickly, and he comes to a quick conclusion.

The fire doesn’t belong to Ace.

It’s uncontrolled and ravaging and hurting and the total opposite _of his brother_.

The islanders fear the fire, fear the damage and destruction and the lack of power. But Sabo, he doesn’t fear the fire.

He fears what it brings with it.

He hurries back to his brothers, and Ace and Luffy are there, faces covered and Luffy grabbing anything – _anything_ – salvageable and Ace is mixing his fire with the unwelcomed fire and doing his best to control it.

Then, the earth shakes. Ace, Sabo, and Luffy’s eyes meet. The former’s are commanding, and the latter’s fearful.

Ace ushers them onto the ship, their ship, and tells them to _get the hell out of here_. Sabo doesn’t need to say anything – doesn’t need to say that _we won’t go_ because Ace has heard it a thousand times, and each time he comes back, alive and injured and _so much worse_ than he was before he left but _alive_ , damnit.

So Sabo and Luffy listen. They never say goodbye, because goodbye meant they were never going to see each other again.

“This is bad,” Luffy says, and Sabo feels his heart get ripped out.

…

His brother dies battling the Whitebeard Pirates – dies from a mistake, a mistake on the crew of the Strongest Man in the World because they had thought the trio had attacked the island, an island under their protection, and Ace, his brother – his brother, his friend, one of his _first_ _true_ family – was there, trying to douse the fires with his own ability and Sabo knows Ace looked _crazed_ , crazed from the paranoia of being hunted down, crazed with the guilt of thinking _it was his fault_ his brothers were being hunted alongside him, crazed because he knows with all his heart and mind and soul that no matter how much he explains he will never be believed in; and the battle ensued.

It doesn’t change anything to Sabo. He and Luffy are hiding, hiding from the world until Sabo could bring himself to pull it together. He doesn’t care if the Whitebeard Pirates realize the truth and seek them out, or if they’re still being hunted down, hunted for being affiliated with the son of a demon. It doesn’t change a thing.

Portgas D. Ace dies from the hands of Edward Newgate.

 

~~*~~*~~

 

Weeks later, sailing once more – but hurting, always hurting, – Sabo recognizes the fact that he just went through the stages of grief; he recognizes it briefly, but his memory reaches out and states that acceptance – acceptance of Ace’s _eternal lack of presence_ – is the last stage. The other stages are hazy; fuzzy things that make a lick of sense. He remembers being in denial, being angry, and _hoping_ it was just a dream. That’s it. He remembers that.

What Sabo doesn’t remember is Luffy looking so _lost_.

Ace is – _was_ , his mind whispered – sixteen, and Sabo, due to be the same in just a few short weeks, was fifteen.

Monkey D. Luffy is only twelve years old, and no child should have to bear the fact that one of his brothers, his family, one of his only companions, is dead.

It’s unacceptable.

The worst part is, Sabo doesn’t know how to handle it. He’s _fifteen_ years old and was hated and being hunted down – no longer because of Ace, but it was never because of Ace – for a new reason, yet it’s achingly familiar.

(To be hunted down by a completely new yet similar – not similar, same, _exactly the same_ – reason, Sabo finds it harrowingly ironic.)

He tried his best. The seas knew that Sabo tried his damned best. And fortunately for him, it’s all Luffy wants; and even more fortunate, it’s all Luffy needs. Some _sense_ of stability, a sense of norm. Sabo wagers it’s more than they thought they’d get. And during the course of trying to help Luffy, Sabo is reminded about something. Something he didn’t know whether to scream or cry or whatever.

He remembers Portgas D. Ace dying.

But he also remembers his brother, _his brother,_ Ace, smiling. Smiling in the arms of death. Smiling because he got his due, or because he was a D. or because he died _protecting his family_.

Nevertheless, his brother dies with a smile.

…

“It hurts,” he whispers to the darkness, the only thing comforting the duo.

It’s a beautiful, cruel world.

 

~~*~~*~~

 

He woke up to _screaming_.

(He hates it; he hates it he _hates it_.)

The fervor feeling of hatred is multiplied because his mind registers it as _Luffy_.

Very vividly and very briefly, he recalls the sound of an explosion and the feeling of the shockwave and running and shouting to _get to a clearing!_ and just _running_. His memory comes back in fractures, and suddenly, his memories crumble and collapse under pressure and all he can recall s Luffy _collapsing and having to protect and –_

Sabo gasps, pain coursing through his arm; his gasp brings an inhale of smoke and cracked debris. And he remembers. Remembers the sound of talk and explosions and _revolution_.

(The Revolutionary Army, his mind whispers.)

Sabo briefly recalls a fishman, and the fishman recognizing him and _challenging him_ ; Sabo had two options, fight or flight.

He chose flight, but Sabo doesn’t know if that was the wise choice, if it was the reason _Luffy was screaming and crying_. Then, his mind snaps back to reality, up to speed with life and how it waits for no one.

The blonde realizes the situation he’s in, and Sabo wants to _scream_.

Luffy was crying. Luffy – his brother, their brother, _their little brother_ – shouting and screaming and crying and begging and Sabo wanted it to just _stop_.

But stopping involved living.

And Sabo knew he wasn’t mean to do that.

Pain stabs through his very core, and it hurts, it hurts to even _breathe_ , but he does the one thing he knows to do best, something he’s been doing since their other brother had died two years ago, and Sabo knows he’s going to do it with confidence, so much confidence, and he knows Luffy will know it’s an act but still. He does what he does best.

Sabo smiles as Luffy tentatively returns it; fake as his ow, but Sabo’s heart warms because of the action.

(And the blonde’s last memory is the forced smile of their little brother, and he wishes that they could take the pain away.)

 

~~*~~*~~

 

Three years later, and they’re proud.

So, so, _so_ proud.

Monkey D. Luffy officially sets sail at May 5th, 1522. The teen – boy, _boy_ , to Ace and Sabo, because no matter what, they will also always see the child the unfortunately left behind – lives. Lives the life his brothers ached for, and lives for _them_.

(Because Sabo knows that otherwise, Luffy would have rather joined them, and Ace – and Ace hurts with that idea.)

Luffy’s first crew member is a _Pirate Hunter_ , and it completely baffles the duo. The next is unofficial, but Ace bets with Sabo that the Cat Burglar would join – a bet Sabo declined because _who bets against their own idea?_

Luffy’s entire crew baffles the duo; Ace cracked at the cyborg, and Sabo followed with the skeleton, but they were Luffy’s friends and crew and _nakama_  (What a foreign word, Sabo thought) and because they cared about Luffy, Sabo and Ace cared about them too.

They don’t know what happens after a battle with the man named Blackbeard, but they know something for certain, even after five and three years later.

Monkey D. Luffy _will_ survive, because he was a fighter, a survivor;

“Our brother,” they say.

 

~~*~~*~~

 

_It takes and it takes and it takes._

**Author's Note:**

> I've always aimed to leave something to the reader - a message, a feeling, a question, anything. So, answer me this:  
> When a person dies, who is the one being truly punished? The ones that died?  
> ... Or the ones that was left behind?
> 
>  
> 
>   
>  __  
>  Semperfortis - always strong; always courageous   
> 


End file.
